Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday life
Luke Burgis
Summary
An overview of Rene Girard's famous philosophy about mimetic desire - how everything we want is because someone else wants it. Great modern read and Luke gives great tips on how to make yourself more aware of your own internal desires.
Rating: 4/5
Notes
Wanting well is not an ability we’re born with. It’s a freedom we have to earn
Most of what we desire is mimetic or imitative, not intrinsic
Models, not our objective analysis, shape our desires
Humans fight not because they are different but because they are the same and in their attempts to distinguish themselves have made themselves into enemy twins, human doubles in reciprocal violence - Rene Girard
Models get their desires from other models
Babies come out of the womb seeming to have the ability to imitate
Mimetic desire operates in the dark. Those who can see in the dark take full advantage
Models are most powerful when they are hidden. If you want to make someone passionate about something, they have to believe the desire is their own
Playing hard to get is a tried and tested method to make people desire you
Sometimes the most important things in our life come easily - they seem like gifts - while many of the least important things are the ones that we worked hardest for
Desire is not a function of data; it’s a function of other people’s desires
We are fascinated by people who have a different relationship to desire, real or perceived
Rivalry is a function of proximity
The modern world is one of expects. Everything boils down to choosing the right one
People worry about what other people think before they say something, which affects what they say. Our perception of reality changes reality by altering how we may act
‘Memes’ were first coined by Richard Dawkins in the Selfish Gene
The most effective personal flywheels comes from those who know themselves well
Understand your hierarchy of values
Accusations are dangerously mimetic
Crowds love scapegoats and blaming a specific person
We lack the humility to see we are all caught up in mimetic processes
People pursue the goals that are on offer to them through their systems of desire
Goals are often chosen for us by our models
When deciding goals, start with your why
Every goal is embedded in a system
Mimetic desire the unwritten, unacknowledged system behind visible goals
Put aside thin desires and focus on the thick anti-mimetic one
To uncover thick desires, share personal stories with those around you and listen to theirs
Comprehend and express: a person with their core drive wants to understand, refine then communicate their insights in some way
Increase the speed of truth
To make better decisions, sit quietly in a room
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room - Pascal
Filter feedback from everyone
We’ve given google our desires and that’s a very high price to pay
Authoritarian governments only stay in existence as long as they control people’s desires
Spend more time in meditate thought and less in calculated thought
Life is about navigating an uncertain future and every one of our current schemes is inadequate
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Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Free E-book download here
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